Indiana sports events: the N-S ‘bucket list'

Ever since the movie “The Bucket List” came out in 2007, we've heard more stories about people who have traveled the country to attend baseball games in every Major League park, or football games in every NFL stadium. They are living out their dreams doing something they've always wanted to do.

That's great, and congratulations, but who from around here can afford that? Not anyone who has a young family or who is on a fixed income, that's for sure.

So this summer The News-Sentinel is creating our own list, one we call “The Indiana Dream Ticket.” Our goal is to come up with 18 events every Hoosier sports fan should want to see sometime during his lifetime. We said “lifetime” because we know there's no way anyone could afford to do all 18 events in a single year, even if he had the stamina.

We'll run stories about the events each Tuesday and Wednesday all summer, and we'll keep a running total of what we've covered so far.

Almost all the events are things you've heard of before, but there could be a couple of surprises.

The basic idea? Have fun. Isn't that what sports and summer are supposed to be all about?

We tried to limit the list to events you could do in a day, but there are also a couple that might take two days because of travel and the length of the events. Some of them are obvious, like the Indianapolis 500, a Colts game or even a Komets or TinCaps game.

But which Komets and which TinCaps games in particular?

I'll also tell you the event that ended up being the last game on the list, though it may appear in the series somewhere in the middle. There was a huge, knock-down, drag-out argument about including the Old Oaken Bucket game on the list – and I lost.

The idea behind the list was to include quality events, and the Old Oaken Bucket game hasn't had any quality attached to it in decades. It seems as if it's been forever since both Indiana and Purdue had good football teams at the same time.

When's the last time one of the teams wasn't a heavy favorite in the game? When's the last time something happened in this game that really stuck in your memory? Rod Woodson playing both ways? That was in 1986! When's the last time the game was a sellout? Was Bob Griese the Boilers' quarterback, or was it Mike Phipps?

But, like I said, I lost the argument, which means Pete DiPrimio better write a really good story to convince me why anyone should care about this game. All I can tell you is the argument was much more exciting than the game itself has been in recent memory.

As we go along, if you'd like to suggest your own “Indiana Dream Ticket” of events, we encourage you to email your lists to nssports@news-sentinel.com.

This column is the commentary of the writer and does not reflect the views or opinions of The News-Sentinel. Email Blake Sebring at bsebring@news-sentinel.com.